Democracy Now! Blog

Earlier today Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) resigned his House seat after acknowledging he had an affair with a female staffer. Long an advocate for "family values," Souder called for former President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. On Sept. 17, 1998, during the Clinton impeachment scandal, Democracy Now! invited Rep. Souder and Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL) (who is now running for governor in Florida) to discuss by phone a recent House vote on combating drugs. In the spirit of the times, Amy Goodman asked both men if they have ever had extramarital affairs. McCollum said "I am not, and, uh.. in, at this present time involved in anything whatsoever, have not been." When Souder was asked, he hung up the phone.

Lena Horne died this week at the age of 92. More than just a brilliant singer and actress, she was a pioneering civil rights activist, breaking racial barriers for generations of African-Americans who have followed her.

The pioneering African-American actress, singer, and civil rights activist has died at the age of 91. We speak with James Gavin, author of, Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne. Part I of this conversation can be viewed here

Democracy Now! host and executive producer Amy Goodman along with producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar are filing a federal lawsuit today that challenges the police crackdown on journalists at the Republican National Convention in 2008.

Alberto Acosta is the Former President of the Constituent Assembly as well as a former minister of Energy in Ecuador. Democracy Now! producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous caught up with Acosta at the World People’s Summit on Climate Change in Cochabamba, Bolivia last week.

Arizona Senate Bill 1070 empowers state and local law enforcement to stop, question and arrest whoever they suspect may not be in the state legally. The law is an open invitation to sweeping racial profiling and arbitrary detention.

Thousands of climate justice activists have arrived here in Bolivia for the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth. Bolivian President Evo Morales called for the gathering to give the poor and the Global South an opportunity to respond to the failed climate talks in Copenhagen. Ten years ago this month, the host city for the summit, Cochabamba, was at the center of an epic fight over the most vital of natural resources: its own water.

Following the Israeli siege, Alice Walker visited Gaza in March 2009 along with a 60-member international delegation led by Code Pink. Walking among the ruins, she spoke to Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat.

Scholar Tariq Ramadan was banned from the United States for six years. He’s just been allowed back in and arrived in New York on Wednesday night. Tune in to Democracy Now! Friday for an extended interview with Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford in the UK.

A United States military video was released this week showing the indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians in Baghdad. The nonprofit news organization WikiLeaks obtained the video and made it available on the Internet. The video was made July 12, 2007, by a U.S. military Apache helicopter gunship, and includes audio of military radio transmissions.

President Barack Obama has just returned from his first trip as commander in chief to Afghanistan. The U.S.-led invasion and occupation of that country are now in their ninth year, amid increasing comparisons to Vietnam.

Part II of our conversation with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. He speaks on the under-reported leaked memos of US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, US Policy on Iran, and more.

A leading TV news network in Indonesia is reporting the Indonesian military is planning to charge journalist Allan Nairn with “smearing [its] good name.” In an appearance on Democracy Now! last week, Allan exposed that US-backed Indonesian armed forces assassinated a series of civilian activists in the province of Aceh last year. Amy Goodman reached Allan earlier today just before going to air.

The health care legislative process and its frenetic endgame prompted the president to postpone a trip to the country where his mother raised him for several years of his childhood: Indonesia. While his health care bill is considered by many a huge step forward, Obama is simultaneously, and with far less scrutiny, potentially taking a huge step backward with Indonesia.

Norman Finkelstein is author of several books on the Israel Palestine conflict. His latest is This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. In Part II of our conversation, Finkelstein discusses lessons he learned from Gandhi, the role of public opinion in politics, and more.

Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan — What price would you pay not to kill another human being? At what point would you commit the offenses allegedly perpetrated by Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was charged Wednesday with desertion and “misbehavior before an enemy?”